Baby Baby
By Crazy4Cocopuffs
Chapter Four: Introducing...
"Darien! You had better be ready by now! We have to leave in ten minutes and you haven't even left the bathroom yet!" Serena shouted for her husband, tapping a foot impatiently from her seat on the couch. Now eight and a half months pregnant, Serena was quite large and had a tendency to get EXTREMELY temperamental. They were getting ready for the girls' engagement party and Serena was nervous. She had never met the future-husbands of her best friends, everyone had been doing their own thing lately.
Darien finally stepped out of the bathroom, looking perfect in a pair of slacks and a black polo shirt. "It's about time, Mr. I-need-to-be-absolutely-perfect-before-I-can-leave-the-bathroom. Honest, you take longer than I do to get ready and I'm a GIRL and PREGNANT!"
"I love you too, dear." Darien countered. He sat down on the couch next to Serena and took her hand. "You look cute, by the way." He motioned with his free hand at Serena's choice of clothing. She was wearing a pair of overalls with a bright pink tee shirt underneath. She had on tennis sneakers and her hair was, of course, in her traditional style, tied with pink ribbons. But 'You look cute' was apparently the wrong thing to say to an emotional pregnant woman because Serena burst into tears and cried out, "You think I'm fat!"
"No, Sere, that's not what I think at all! You're absolutely gorgeous! I love you. You're the most beautiful thing in the world to me!" Darien pleaded, not wanting to upset Serena any more than her already had.
"Oh. Okay then. Are you ready to go?" She asked sweetly, attempting to push herself out of her seat unsuccessfully. "A hand please." She said, offering the now standing Darien her hand. "Need I remind you that you put me in this position?"
Darien shook his head while helping Serena to stand. As they headed toward the door, Darien thought, 'Two more weeks. Only two more weeks of mood swings, strange cravings, and general insanity. Once we have the babies, I'll get my sweet, dependable, loving, little Sere back. Just two more weeks...'
Twenty minutes later, they arrived at Lita's now-famous restaurant, The Eternal Moon. Lita had close the restaurant for the engagement party. Ami, her boyfriend Zack, Lita, her boyfriend Nathan, Raye, her boyfriend Jason, Mina, and Mina's boyfriend Kevin were already waiting inside. All of the girls hugged Serena and the guys shoot hands with Darien.
Once the introductions had been made, everyone decided to eat before they did anything else. There was one large table set up in the center of the surrounded by a bunch of couches. Everyone sat down at the table and the servers put the plated lasagna in front of them. (AN: In case you were wondering, the order at the table was: Ami, Zack, Jason, Raye, Serena, Darien, Kevin, Mina, Lita, and Nathan) As they ate, Serena couldn't stand the suspense any longer and abruptly asked the nearest new guy (Nathan was across the table from her), "So, Nathan, how did you meet Lita?"
Nathan laughed nervously. "Well, Zack, Jason, Kevin, and I had a reunion for high school sometime last year. We'd heard about this amazing restaurant and I had to check it out. The Eternal Moon had only recently opened and apparently the manager," he winks at Lita. "was having a little trouble with the wait staff, so she had her friends help out. That's how these guys," He gestures toward Kevin, Zack, and Jason. "met those girls." He points to Raye, Mina, and Ami. "But I didn't meet Leets until she came out to yell at her friends for hanging around at our table. After everyone went home, Lita and I hung around her and she gave me a cooking lesson. We've been together ever since."
Serena laughed. "Yep, that sounds like Lita all right."
Mina slowly grinned, "Remember when she tried to give US cooking lessons?"
All of the girls immediately began cracking up while the guys looked at each other and shrugged. Ami was the first to calm down enough to speak. "Lita had offered to teach us to cook, so after school one day, we all went over to her apartment." She began to laugh again and couldn't continue.
"We had decided to try and make cookies," Raye added, giggling. "We figured, what could be simpler, right? Oh man!" She began to laugh so hard that she actually snorted!
Mina continued. "We did whatever Lita told us to. We put in the milk and eggs and sugar and whatever. But when we got to the last ingredient, I…" Mina was laughing hysterically.
By this time, Serena had calmed down enough to add her part of the story. "Salt. Mina was supposed to add a tablespoon of salt to the dough. Lita had gone to answer the phone, I remember. Mina had heard wrong and went to put in a tablespoon of salt but she discovered that we had no salt, so she substituted…" She couldn't finish, she was laughing so hard.
Lita finally jumped in. "Mina added a tablespoon of GARLIC SALT to the chocolate chip cookies! We didn't know until they were done and we tasted them! Oh boy, they tasted so nasty!" She laughed until her face started to turn red. After hearing the end results, the boys began to laugh along with the girls. Eventually, they calmed themselves down and finished their dinner.
After dinner, the group moved over to the couches that were set up in a circle behind the table. Each couple took a couch and the questioning began all over again. Serena and Darien questioned the newcomers for nearly an hour before nodding their approval. Then the talk moved to a more exciting subject: the babies.
"When are you due, Rena?" Ami asked, always in doctor mode when this subject was mentioned.
"Two weeks and three days." Serena replied, gently rubbing her huge stomach. "I can't wait. It's going to be so different once the babies are her, but honestly, I miss seeing my feet!"
The group laughed and Raye asked the next question. "I still can't believe it's going to be twins. Do you know whether they're boys or girls yet?"
Darien answered this one. "Nope. We decided to wait and see. It really doesn't matter either way. We'll love them no matter what. But now that you mention it, I do want boys. To carry on the family name and such."
"Well, I want them to be girls. Then we can dress them in matching dresses and they be best friends and everything." Serena added, then attempted to stand up. She finally managed with the help of a gentle push from Darien. "I'll be right back. One of the babies is kickboxing with my bladder."
She left the group laughing and went to the bathroom. After using the toilet, she washed her hands and rinsed her face. Serena peered into the mirror for a few minutes, looking at her face and thinking, 'I had a weird feeling about today, but I guess everything is okay now.' But apparently she had thought too soon. As soon as she took a step backward, Serena felt something from her abdomen. She quickly looked at herself in the mirror and whispered, "Oh no." to her reflection.
While Serena was in the bathroom, Lita and Nathan went into the kitchen to get the dessert and Raye had the idea to put some music on and the couples began to dance. Darien stayed on the couch, waiting for Serena.
"DARIEN!" Serena screamed from the bathroom just as Lita and Nathan left the kitchen, carrying a tray between them. Time stopped for a second, and then everyone dropped (in Lita and Nathan's case, they did that literally) what they were doing and raced for the bathroom, Darien in the lead. Just as Darien reached the door, it opened and Serena appeared in the doorway.
Darien pulled her into a tight hug and, after a quick kiss, asked her, "Sweetie, what happened? Are you okay?"
Everyone else was gathered around, anxious to hear her answer and know for sure that she was fine. She hugged her husband tighter for a second then stepped out of his hold and looked at the floor, hands in the pockets of her overalls. She mumbled something, but no one heard it.
"What was that Sere?" Ami asked, stepping out of the crowd and coming up next to Serena. She placed one hand on Serena's elbow and the other on her stomach. Ami felt a twitch under the hand she had on Serena's stomach and looked into her friend's eyes. Serena nodded. A huge grin spread across Ami's face and she hugged Serena excitedly with a little scream.
"Ami, what in the world is wrong with you?" Raye asked, feeling like she was missing something.
Ami released her friend and turned to the others. She was practically bouncing up and down. "She's going into labor. SHE"S HAVING THE BABIES!"
AN: Sorry to end it there, but I'm getting ready to go out and I wanted to have this posted today. I'll continue it in the next chapter. I'll post it ASAP. Thanks to everyone who reviewed so far. You guys are great!